1. Kenneth Arnold’s Flying Saucers

What Kenneth Arnold viewed in the afternoon of June 24, 1947, made history and gave the unusual phenomenon its current name – flying saucers.

The private pilot witnessed a strange formation of disk-shaped vehicles flying over Mount Rainier, Washington at an incredible speed for the human technology of the time. Arnold’s story went viral, granting UFOs enough exposure to render today’s celebs jealous.

Kenneth Arnold was by no means the first one to signal something odd taking place in the skies. What made his story newspaper gold was that he was far from your average nutjob. The experienced pilot was also a businessman, and he backed his eerie encounter with reliable numbers regarding altitude, speed, or direction of flight.

Even more convincing was that his observation took place in broad daylight and excellent weather conditions. Unless Arnold was tripping on something strong, his eyewitness account is shockingly realistic.

Because the US Army denied having such flying vehicles in its arsenal, it was only a matter of time before people connected the dots and designated the drivers as otherworldly beings.

2. Belgian Triangles

Between November 1989 and April 1990, an unprecedented wave of unusual sightings made many fear an invasion was on its way.

Triangular in shape, the giant UFOs would hover silently in the sky over Belgium, displaying only four lights underneath.

Nothing special until now. We have all seen such apparitions, and there are many plausible explanations. However, the situation escalated to incredible proportions throughout the night of 30–31 March 1990.

It all started once the unknown objects appeared on radar. Two Belgian Air Force F-16s were dispatched and tried to engage, only to come to a startling conclusion. The until-then sluggish UFOs jumped around at mind-bending speeds the moment the planes came in sight.

Nine separated interceptions of the targets failed, not something to be proud off as a NATO member state.

The Belgian case was noteworthy because thousands of eye-witnesses backed the cat-and-mouse chase in the skies. What was it?

3. Hill Abduction

Barney and Betty Hill are an American couple who claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrials in 1961.

The Hill Abduction was similar to Kenneth Arnold’s encounter with flying saucers. It gave the phenomenon the needed press real estate to make a lasting impression on the public.

Suddenly, people started looking at the skies with fear. Mutilations and other gruesome experiments, all bared the signature of intergalactic travelers who came to Earth in search of guinea pigs.

Going back to the story, we understand why it inspired an entire movie genre. The two were driving at night through a rural portion of New Hampshire when the ship engaged them.

Barney and Betty Hill last remembered a blinding light before saying to each other aloud “Oh my God, we’re going to be captured!” Later hypnosis revealed how the aliens took them on board and performed nasty stuff on their defenseless bodies.

What makes the story credible even for non-crazy people? The Hill family had nothing to gain from inventing such a disturbing and compromising story.

They only wanted to tell the truth. And they did, leading to a disturbing statistic. 2% of US citizens claim to have been abducted at least once.

4. Phoenix Lights

The Phoenix Lights entered UFO folklore as a mass sighting with tons of video footage and thousands of credible eye-witness accounts.

That is mostly because the unidentified craft seen over Arizona on March 13, 1997, was several football fields in size. You can’t hide the truth when it is that big!

What made the case even more shockingly creepy was the intensive cover-up performed by the authorities. Fife Symington (pictured below) was Arizona Governor at that time, and his way of being funny failed disastrously.

Trying to dismiss all the hype as bogus, Symington dressed up on of his lieutenants as an alien and brought him on stage during a live press conference. “Ok gang, let’s see who’s really behind the mask!”

The whole thing backfired. Once leaving public office, Symington made an unexpected move and switched allegiances to join the crowds of ufologists that still believe to this day the Phoenix Lights were the closest thing we came to alien contact.

5. The Sverdlovsk Midget

The United States is not the only place where alien visitors like to spend their holidays. Soviet Russia is also on their list. Unfortunately for them, things got messy!

Behold, what some say is the biggest proof of extraterrestrials visiting Earth. A UFO crashed in the remote region of Sverdlovsk, and the military came to claim the wreckage and the bodies.

Sverdlovsk Midget is the nickname given to the alien pilot retrieved from the wreckage. As you probably guessed, Russian scientists performed a full autopsy, of which a video survived undeleted online.

Russia’s own Roswell gets our stamp of approval. The military personnel looks genuine, and there are no hints of someone trying to make everything look dramatic.

6. Shag Harbor

Shag Harbor is a UFO file capable of turning even a staunch skeptic into a believer.

When news broke that something had crashed in the waters of Nova Scotia, everyone rushed to look for survivors. It was not long until authorities realized no aircraft that was flying in the area went missing.

That’s where the UFO story gets a bizarre twist that made the non-believers anxious. Various civilian (Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Coast Guard) and military (Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force) agencies stepped on each other’s toes to investigate the incident. Why would they bother to go all the way to a God-forsaken fishing village?

Search for a wreckage went on for weeks, yet nothing emerged from the bottom of the Atlantic. Or at least that’s the official version. The people of Shag Harbor remained with a touristic road sign and a burning enigma.

7. Tehran Incident

On the early morning of September 19, 1976, the skies over Tehran hosted an uncomfortable encounter.

Several F-4 Phantom fighters were dispatched to intercept UFOs that showed no shame in violating Iranian airspace. Ground radar first picked up the strange looking crafts, and pilots immediately performed a visual confirmation.

The story gets creepy as the planes of the Iranian Air Force attempted to engage. All their systems went down the moment they had their targets locked and ready to shoot. It’s like an invisible force field was emanating from the UFOs, corrupting the controls of fighter jets that are usually merciless in direct combat.

The invisible enemies disappeared without a trace, not without waking up an entire suburb of Tehran with their flashing lights.

Why do non-crazy people still keep talking about the Tehran Incident? When it comes to experienced personnel with thousands of hours of combat duty and high-rank officials all pointing out in the same direction, there is little room for doubt.

8. Rendlesham Forest

The Rendlesham Forest Incident of 1980 ranks even today as one of the most convincing paranormal incidents involving aliens.

An odd looking craft lured military personnel and police officers through a hellish forest maze only surpassed by the bureaucratic paperwork that followed.

What makes the case rank supreme among hundreds of similar events? Rendlesham Forest was named “Britain’s Roswell” due to the unprecedented level of cover-up and secrecy.

Similarly, high-rank officials initially opened their mouth to blame the Grays for what was an unpardonable breach of security. Everything changed once the story exploded in the media.

The official report was funny – the alleged sighting was a combination between a fireball, a lighthouse, and some bright stars. Nevertheless, ufologists still visit Rendlesham Forest, the Mecca of their quest for answers.

The truth is out there, lurking behind the branches, staring through big dark eyes at you. Do you have the stomach to use that flashlight?

9. Varginha

Varginha is a name that sends shivers down the spine of any sane individual that has a critical view on the UFO phenomenon.

Brazil had its fair share of extraterrestrial drama, and it all started with the incredible events of 1996. Three girls came across an injured ET while playing around an abandoned compound near their favela. Their strict Catholic upbringing sent them home proudly claiming to have seen the Devil.

More bizarre encounters followed as locals claimed to have seen similar hellish creatures. That’s the point when authorities intervened in force, sending military trucks to capture the beings.

The Varginha incident paired an unprecedented number of UFO sightings. Let’s get it straight! Brazil is the kind of place where alien ships are not shy in showing themselves during the day, sometimes hours at a time.

The official response tried to give events a mundane reasoning. The girls had come across an odd homeless named “Mudinho,” while the trucks were part of the Army’s routine maneuvers in the area.

10. Voronezh

Most aliens choose to torment us from the comfort of their flying saucers or at least be discreet with their abductions.

In 1989, they decided the step out of the ordinary procedure and gave the people of Voronezh the scare of their lifetime. A UFO landed in broad daylight in the largest public park, and three-eyed giant humanoids descended upon the horrified onlookers.

Hundreds witnessed the strange apparition. Some children playing football were particularly unlucky.

The aliens brought with them from the ship a robot, which started chasing them down. An odd device pulverized/teleported one youngster into oblivion, apparently completing the visitors’ mission.

Let’s break in the facts. What would the Russians have to gain from crafting such an elaborated tale? 1989 was not exactly the right year to mess with things that could potentially impact national security.

11. Greifswald Lights

It belongs to a longer video, one that showed the mysterious Greifswald Lights in action, changing positions over the Baltic Sea, and defying the tens of thousands that witnessed them.

Let’s have a quick look at the context, just to show you why this UFO incident passed our skeptical filters. First and most important, the Greifswald Lights appeared just six weeks before Germany’s planned reunification of 1990.

That was neither the time nor the place for the great powers that could have replicated or mimicked alien technology to mess around. The delicate geopolitical context also rules out explanations like flares, drones, weather balloons, or anything else traditionally used a scapegoat in such circumstances.

It leaves us with two options – aliens test-driving their flying saucers in Earth’s atmosphere or a natural phenomenon we are not aware of yet. The only regret here is the primitive filming technology of the time.

12. Height 611

We can’t accept the idea of a technical failure, not for equipment sturdy enough to make intergalactic traveling possible. Something bizarre must have happened on January 29, 1986, for a UFO to crash near the Soviet town of Dalnegorsk, Primorsky Krai.

A mysterious red light was observed by locals flying at low altitude before it hit a mountain peak known as Height 611. The place attracted a mixed crowd of ufologists and scientists, both seeking evidence that would support their side of the story.

Most UFO incidents leave nothing behind. At Height 611, the battered soil revealed tiny, mysterious fragments from an unknown material. Analysis showed chemical elements scarce on Earth, as well as a high concentration of gold, all of them graciously stuffed in the mouths of non-believers.

Nevertheless, the oddest thing was that strange phenomenon continued in the area, with one UFO illuminating the crash site and another one even landing there. Something tells us they aren’t there to bring flowers!

13. The Battle of Los Angeles

Fear can make people throw stones in the dark, or … even worse, command a full night of artillery at a weather balloon.

At least that the side of the story if we believe the US officials. The so-called Battle of Los Angeles took place on February 24, 1942, three months before America signed up for WWII in opposition to the Japan attack on Pearl Harbor.

What was the enemy that triggered the alarm? The answer is simple and obvious. We might celebrate Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 encounter as the first ever UFO case, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t come snooping around well before that date.

The Battle of Los Angeles is convincing even for non-crazy people because the officials were upset with the press asking too many questions.

14. Yukon Mothership

Most UFO cases involving motherships are faker than the ones we saw in the “Independence Day” movie.

Nevertheless, there is one incident that got the math right. Tens of eyewitness observed the massive UFO hovering above the Klondike Highway in the Yukon Territory of Canada on December 11th, 1996.

Although there is no footage for us to analyze, the compelling way in which key eye-witnesses backed their claims is enough for us to construct a mental image. How big is big? Well, an unidentified flying object larger than 1.5 km in diameter is sufficient to make you consider doomsday scenarios.

What makes the Yukon encounter bullet proof is that it comes from a country that has no tradition whatsoever in hoaxing. Canadians are kind, friendly, and generous with those coming to their lands. We bet they even threw in a welcome party.

15. Allagash Abductions

Take a look at the four friends that seen hell, or at least its science-fiction equivalent – the nightmarish human laboratory on board an alien spaceship.

The Allagash Abductions of 1976 is creepy and real enough to ruin your next excursion in the great outdoors. The four men went on a two-week getaway in the Maine wilderness and experienced a bizarre incident.

A blinding light chased them while they were paddling down a lake and the rest is the same cliché story of how the encounter with aliens is so traumatic, the human brain copes better by not forging lasting memories. The poor souls remembered all under hypnosis.

Naturally, people laughed at their misfortune. That is why extraterrestrials keep messing with us – because no one takes such tales seriously.

17. Betty Andreasson Abduction

The Betty Andreasson abduction case is a bizarre combination of surreal details that push the envelope.

Andreasson claimed to have been taken on board an alien ship one night in January 1967. The beings she encountered triggered a spiritual awakening in her. A Christian fundamentalist, the woman often crossed the line to give the experience Biblical coordinates. Later under hypnosis, Andreasson remembered previous abduction episodes that go back all the way to her childhood.

What is real? Did she make it all up? The only pieces of evidence left behind are her own words and bizarre drawings. There is something about those small alien children that will not let us sleep tonight!

18. Roswell Incident

Roswell needs no further introduction and easily remained the most complicated case involving UFOs.

Although the official version puts it beyond doubt that the recovered craft was nothing but a weather balloon, we are not yet to let this myth go away. Stories don’t just come out of the blue, and the government’s propaganda mechanism kicked in for a good reason.

Even today, we are not ready to face sober the idea that aliens might be already on Earth. It would have been too much to handle for the folks of 1947, after narrowly escaping the horrors of WWII.

We hope this article gave a renewed reason to look up to the skies in hope. We are not alone, and we should no longer dismiss potential extraterrestrial visits are preposterous and capable of earning us a ticket for the mental asylum.